Our Blog

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

What is WEW you ask? Why, "White Edition Wednesday," of course! But WEW is going on vacation for two weeks. But it will be back with The Emerald City of Oz on January 11th.

Now to cheer yourself up, why not go listen to our internet radio station for a while? It's free and it's Ozzy! What's not to like?

It's easy to listen to Emerald City Radio on Live365. Just go to Live365 and click "Sign Up" in the upper right hand corner and join for free for access to thousands of internet radio stations. Then "Log In" and make a search for Emerald City Radio. When the Emerald City Radio logo shows up in your search results, just click on the logo to start listening right away! Listening is free.

If you don't want to hear any ads, you can become a Live365 VIP listener. Just click on the banner ad at the bottom of today's blog. It costs a few bucks a month to be a Live365 VIP, but as a VIP you can listen to a wider range of internet radio stations and you'll skip the advertisements.

Emerald City Radio allows a limited number of free non-VIP listeners. So in the slim chance you're kicked off the station or can't connect as a free listener, try again later when there may be fewer listeners. Or convert your account to VIP and you'll never have to leave Live365 unless you want to.

So come on and give Emerald City Radio a try. Our current playlist is over 7 1/2 hours long with such a wide variety of Oz songs and music that you're sure to hear some old friends and some new delights.

Monday, December 26, 2011

I thought you might like an advance look at the super cover for issue #5 of Eric Shanower and Skottie Young's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz from Marvel Comics. The wooden gargoyles were one of the few things in the Oz books that scared me when I was little.

Not too long after I read Dorothy and the Wizard for the first time, I saw a TV movie called Gargoyles (1972) which scared the bejeezus out of me. It was a pretty scary movie - and not badly made for a TV film in the early seventies - but much of the film was set in New Mexico and some of the location-shots were filmed in Albuquerque where I was living at the time, which added a lot of verisimilitude to the movie.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Today's blog stars Lambert from Eloise Jarvis McGraw's The Forbidden Fountain of Oz. I have two things to say: First, I thought I'd share the little-known fact that in the early drafts of the Forbidden Fountain manuscript Lambert was actually named Billabong! I also decided to share Eloise's own recipe for Lemon-Lamb Ragout. It sounds very tasty! Poor Lambert ...

Lemon-Lamb Ragout

By Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Serves four generously. For a party of six, use 1-1/2 times these amounts. For eight, double. If making half recipe, only cut sauce by 1/4. This recipe may be made using veal or chicken instead of lamb, but I think lamb is best of all.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Trim fat from lamb, dry it thoroughly in paper towels. In a lidded flameproof casserole, about 4-5 quart capacity, melt butter, add oil, slowly brown bacon. Add lamb a few pieces at a time, removing them (and bacon) as they get brown enough, until all are pale brown. Return all lamb and bacon to casserole. Sprinkle with the marjoram, cayenne, and salt, stir, and let cook on low heat about five minutes; meanwhile, heat in a saucepan the chicken broth with thickening mixture stirred in, adding Vermouth when sauce has thickened slightly. Stir sauce into meat (all returned to casserole by this time, of course), add the bay leaf, garlic and Worcestershire sauce. Lay the lemon slices on top. Bring casserole to a boil, then cover and place in lower third of the preheated oven. Reduce temperature of oven if necessary to keep meat at a bare simmer. Cook 1 to 1-1/2 hours, until meat is fork tender. Tip casserole and skim off all fat. Discard lemon slices and bay leaf (if you can find it).

Up to this point the recipe may be made up to a day ahead, simply allow the ragout to cool, cover tightly with foil and refrigerate. To reheat, bring to room temperature and place in 325 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until stew is just bubbling.

To finish heated stew: Add 1 package of frozen artichoke hearts, cooked and warm, or 1 can artichoke heart, drained, rinsed, and warm (at least room temperature). Stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional). I often use half-and-half and it's just as good.

Transfer the ragout to a warmed oven-proof dish suitable for the table - about 9" x 12" with shallow sides to contain the sauce.

A green salad and a good French bread are all you need otherwise, and a really good red wine such as Italian Barolo or Chianti Classico. This meal turns out satisfying but light, and dessert-lovers may spread themselves (no pun intended) on a fruity tart or pie, or maybe cheesecake.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Last week we looked atDorothy and the Wizard in Oz - this Wednesday we journey down The Road to Oz. This "white edition" is relatively unchanged from the usual Reilly & Lee edition beyond the new cover design and a few minor additions to the fore matter - but the cover is one of my favorites. The front cover is based on one of John R. Neill's finest pen-and-ink drawings from the interior of the book. I don't know that Dick owned this original drawing at the time he designed the "white edition," but he did eventually have it in his collection.

Original Neill drawing from THE ROAD TO OZ originally in the collection of Dick Martin.

My suspicion is that Dick already owned the drawing. He certainly would have had access to it in the Reilly & Lee files - and I think the new "white edition" cover is more than likely based on the original art rather than the version printed in the book. There is a lightness and subtlety to it - this is one cover image that does not appear to my eyes to be "Martinized."

Cover of the 1909 First Edition.

The back cover is based on the back cover of the first edition (see above) from 1909, though it has been redrawn by Dick and has a much more attractive color scheme than the original. Toto on the spine is based on the original spine illustration, though Dick has added the blue ribbon around Toto's neck.

Of course the "white edition" of Road is the only one in the series to have its correct original endpapers, since Dick chose these handsome Road to Oz end sheets for each of the fourteen volumes.

As I mentioned above, the fore matter in Road got very few changes. For the "Famous Oz Books" ad on page one Dick created a new drawing based on the donkey-headed Shaggy Man from the cover of the first edition.

Dick added an Ozzy border to the original ownership leaf (see below) which I think quite an attractive change.

Original at left - "white edition" at right.

Facing the half-title page we come to an odd choice - Dick has added a flock of butterflies drawn by Maginel Wright Enright for Baum's Policeman Bluejay (1907).

The title page has been reset and Dick has added a small head of Jack Pumpkinhead to replace the usual Reilly & Lee "lamp" device. Finally, facing the author's note, Dick has printed one of the "laughing children" chapter headings with an "Oz" in the center. And after the ads at the end of the book we get the redrawn Toto head from the spine once again.

The Road to Oz was my favorite Oz book as a child and in many ways it still is. No Oz book but Wizard introduces so many good and long-lasting characters, the alleged plotlessness never bothered me - road-trips don't have plots - and no Oz book ever had finer illustrations.

I try to add a little bonus item to many of the "white edition" posts and today's is a photo of young Eric Shanower (with his sister), holding the first full-length Oz book he ever had - the "white edition" of The Road to Oz.

Eric Shanower holding his first Oz book - THE ROAD TO OZ.

"White Edition Wednesday" is going away for the holidays but it will be back on January 11th with The Emerald City of Oz.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Well, these days Sis would be welcome to join up. But from a purely historical perspective it's interesting to consider what's going on in Europe in January of 1940 and what's coming down the pike twenty-three months later.

That said, please don't try jumping off the roof with an umbrella!

This installment of Marge and Ruth Plumly Thompson's SIS SEZ page first appeared in King Comics, No. 57, in January 1940. If you love Marge's Little Lulu you're sure to get a kick out of Sis!

Please note that if you click on the image it will expand to a full-size version which will make it much easier to read! All of the other blog images will similarly enlarge.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

We in the Tiger Den are delighted to announce that Hungry Tiger Press has its own internet radio station. And it's available free to all listeners! Our current playlist includes music from almost every Oz musical and Oz film - songs from the 1903 Wizard of Oz on up to the latest Oz hit by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It's easy to listen to Emerald City Radio on Live365. Just click here to go to Live365 and click "Sign Up" in the upper right hand corner and join for free for access to thousands of internet radio stations. Then "Log In" and make a search for Emerald City Radio. When the Emerald City Radio logo shows up in your search results, just click on the logo to start listening right away! Listening is free.

If you don't want to hear any ads, you can become a Live365 VIP listener. Just click on the banner ad at the bottom of today's blog. It costs a few bucks a month to be a Live365 VIP, but as a VIP you can listen to a wider range of internet radio stations and you'll skip the advertisements.

Emerald City Radio allows a limited number of free non-VIP listeners. So in the slim chance you're kicked off the station or can't connect as a free listener, try again later when there may be fewer listeners. Or convert your account to VIP and you'll never have to leave Live365 unless you want to.

So come on and give Emerald City Radio a try. Our current playlist is over 7 1/2 hours long with such a wide variety of Oz songs and music that you're sure to hear some old friends and some new delights.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I'm delighted to announce that I am a guest blogger today on The New York Public Library's "Musical of the Month" series discussing the 1903 Wizard of Oz musical.

An initial post yesterday by blogger and NYPL Digital Curator Doug Reside included a digital version of Baum's 1903 copyright deposit script.

Many of you probably know I've been quite fascinated with this particular show for the last decade or so and am working to finish my long overdue book on the show. I've also produced the award-winning 2 CD setVintage Recordings from the 1903 Broadway Musical The Wizard Of Oz which earned Grammy nomination as "Best Historical Album" of 2003.

Anyway, go on over and read my guest blogging antics on the NYPL site by clicking here.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Last Wednesday we looked at Ozma of Oz and today we examine Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz - and since this title has more changes than usual for the white editions, let's get right to it!

I think this is one of Dick Martin's more striking covers. I especially like the bright red that unifies the design. The front cover is based on Neill's original pictorial cover label (at right). The piglet on the spine is from The Oz Toy Book (1916). The back cover has always been a favorite of mine, too. I can remember staring at it for hours when I was little, fascinated by Eureka in the cage and wearing that amazing suit, and wondering why a cat prisoner had a little pistol. Perhaps she would have used it had the trial gone worse than it did. The image is from one of Neill's best color plates in the 1907 edition.

Dick Martin radically altered the fore matter to this title, so we'll start on the very first page of the "white edition." For the "Famous Oz books" ad Dick used the drawing from the original half-title page. For some reason he redrew it - it's subtle but it's clearly been redrawn from scratch. (See below)

1907 half-title at left - Dick Martin redraw at right.

Dick Martin's choice for the new ownership leaf is especially odd. The one seen below left is the original 1907 version showing Dorothy and Eureka. In 1916 the text was re-imposed and the original ownership leaf was replaced with one from Rinkitink in Oz (below center). Oddly, Dick Martin chose a surprisingly generic image from John R. Neill's picture book series "The Children's Own Books," (below right) rather than restoring the original 1907 ownership leaf in the "white edition."

However, that image may have led Dick to the discovery of a little-known drawing Neill had done for Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz in 1907 that had not made it into the original edition.

1980 "Children's Own Books" advertisement and half-title page.

And Dick turned that image into the new "white edition" half-title page - the first time this picture was ever printed in the book it was drawn for! The small image of the Wizard facing the new half title is a redrawn portion of the chapter heading for Chapter Thirteen.

The "white edition" frontispiece is a new black and white drawing by Dick Martin based on one of Neill's original color plates.

Dick was able to use nine of the original sixteen color plates in the 1965 "white edition" if you count the back cover. Most are like the above example where Dick just traced and inked the original image, but for the charming picture of Dorothy facing page one, Dick used only a portion of the original plate. (See below)

Here are a couple more examples. When I was a kid it never occurred to me that these drawings were stylistically off from Neill. To my eyes now they seem very cartoony and modern - especially the one below, featuring the Wizard giving Gwig "what for."

One reason Dick added these black and white "color plates" to this title and didn't for the other titles is that Dorothy and the Wizard is the shortest Oz book by page count. The story isn't shorter, but Neill did less artwork, so it's always been a thinner volume. And as far as page count goes, the original edition included the sixteen color plates (both fronts and backs) in the pagination; thus the first edition text ends on page 256. The "white edition" pagination, even with all Dick's new artwork and beginning the page numbers on the first page of text, only allows the "white edition" to reach page 220 on the final page of text.

A few other little changes occur at the end of the book. Dick omitted the tail-piece of Ozma gazing out the window. Dick created a new "The End" illustration after the last of the ads by combining several different images of the piglets.

There are two mystery images in the book - let's see if my reader's can place them. One is the fine Neill illustration facing the "To My Readers" page. It looks like some images I've seen for John R. Neill bookplates.

The other is this little guy. He appears on the new title page Dick prepared. He doesn't look Neillish to me - nor very Dick Martin either, for that matter. Does anyone recognize him?

Bibliographic Oddities

Like most of the "white editions," the earliest copies of the book list all forty Oz books in the ad at the beginning of the book. Later copies reduce the list to Baum's fourteen. However, at least two copies of the "white edition" have been reported that have old 1950s text blocks in them. It doesn't seem at all unlikely that Reilly & Lee might have had some unbound text blocks hanging around in storage and bound them up in fancy new "white edition" covers. And if they did this with Dorothy and the Wizard, perhaps they did it with other Oz titles, too! It may be simply that the revised Dorothy and the Wizard text is just different enough that someone noticed this publishing oddity. So check all of your white editions as we go along and do let me know if you have any older editions bound up in "white edition" covers.

Well, that's it for today. Next week we'll take a walk down The Road to Oz.

Today, December 11, 2011, would have been Rachel Cosgrove Payes's 89th birthday.

In the summer of 1979 I finally obtained a copy of her first book The Hidden Valley of Oz (not a first edition) and after reading it I wanted to write Rachel Cosgrove and get my book signed. I wrote Fred Meyer, then secretary of the Oz Club, for her address, but he warned me she'd probably not answer as she hated Oz and hated Oz fans. But he sent me her address and I decided to try my luck.

Click to Enlarge

I got an immediate reply from Rachel and she couldn't have been more charming. She even doodled little pictures of her characters Percy and Spots from Hidden Valley at the bottom of the letter. She happily agreed to autograph my book and signed the letter "Oz forever!"

It turns out she didn't dislike Oz or dislike Oz fans - she disliked Fred Meyer. When the Oz Club was founded in the late 1950s Fred had written to Rachel asking if she'd like to join. She politely declined for various reasons, including having two young children to raise. But Fred kept badgering her - and he really kept badgering her to send him a copy of her then-unpublished second Oz book, The Wicked Witch of Oz. She finally had to read him the riot act - asking him to leave her alone - something that I'm sure she could do quite well! And Fred wrote her off as an Oz hater.

Now, Rachel did indeed have a problem understanding grown men devoting their lives to Oz. She repeatedly said, "Oz is for kids." Rachel also had great trouble comprehending what she called "the collector mentality." But to some extent these were just sound bytes Rachel would toss out. Anyone who makes herself a Wicked Witch of the South costume (pointy hat included) and delights in showing off her silver high heels (as silver slippers) must have a big streak of Ozzy fandom running through her veins.

So back to that first letter from 1979. I sent Rachel my copy of Hidden Valley and she signed it. We struck up a pen-pal sort of correspondence, exchanging a couple letters a year and birthday and Christmas cards. In early 1985 I was going to be in New York State and I wrote and asked if I might pay her a visit. She said she'd be delighted. Rachel was living in Shrub Oak, New York, about half an hour north of NYC. She welcomed me in, we talked for a bit, she showed me the shelves that held copies of all of her books (almost forty titles at that time), and we also looked at her research library which she used in writing the gothic romance novels she wrote in her latter years.

Rachel Cosgrove Payes in her living room, January 1985.

The most surprising thing about the visit was finding Rachel had a bad foot. She had fought a serious battle with cancer a couple decades before, and the experimental chemo that saved her life dissolved some bones in her foot. She got around fine, and her foot never stopped her from doing extensive world travel or going dancing with her husband Norman. I had acquired a first edition of Hidden Valley by this time and I brought it along, hoping she would sign it. She happily agreed to do so.

We continued to exchange notes on occasion - especially after I started attending NYU. But in the summer of 1990 our relationship kicked into higher gear. Eric Shanower and I had just started living together and suddenly Eric was asked by the Oz Club to illustrate Rachel's Wicked Witch of Oz. The Oz Club had just gotten the rights to reprint Hidden Valley of Oz, too. Rachel decided to attend the Munchkin Convention that year and her Ozzy renaissance began. She and Eric wrote back and forth quite a bit while he was illustrating the book, Rachel became a regular at the Munchkin Convention, and in 1994 I asked her to write something Ozzy for the first issue of my forthcoming anthology Oz-story. A few months later a long short story arrived in the mail, "Percy and the Shrinking Violet."

Eric, Rachel, and David at the OZ-STORY No. 1 Publication Party - June 1995

She wrote me another story, "Spots in Oz," for Oz-story No. 3. She and Norman had become good friends. Eric and I held publication parties for each issue of Oz-story and Rachel and Norman always came. Rachel often brought little hand-made gifts and bottles of wine, she baked Hidden Valley muffins for us, she went to a lot of trouble to track down a refrigerator magnet set she thought Eric and I needed - it was a Michelangelo Statue of David magnet complete with removable Santa suit! It's on our current refrigerator still. Every few weeks Eric and I would get a letter (sometimes addressed to our dog) and Rachel would have scribbled some complaint about writing, clipped a cartoon, and thrown in some coupons for something she thought we might need. Rachel was no longer the Royal Historian of Oz - she'd just become a good friend.

Friday, December 9, 2011

A few weekends ago Eric Shanower and I paid a visit to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco to see a wonderful exhibit of Oz comics including lots of Eric's original artwork as well as many pieces by Skottie Young.

There's lots of cool stuff to see - I'm also pleased to say I loaned them a page of Skottie Young art from my collection, too. One of my favorite things in the exhibition was the Denslow Father Goose comic page and also the several Neill Nip and Tuck comic pages. All the original Shanower art is great - but since it usually resides here in the Tiger Den it doesn't seem as special to me as it might to others - though I do like seeing it all matted and framed and hanging on the wall.

We’re off to see the Wizard! The Cartoon Art Museum celebrates The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with an exhibition featuring vintage newspaper tearsheets and original artwork spanning over 100 years of classic comics.

At the dawn of the 20th century, L. Frank Baum created a world of wonders that was to hold a permanent place in the culture of America: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . Then in 1904, to promote his second book, Baum, along with master cartoonist Walt McDougall, brought his famed characters to Earth in a new medium, the comic strip. Famed Oz illustrators W.W. Denslow and John R. Neill also launched their own syndicated comic strips in the early 20th Century. The Cartoon Art Museum’s exhibition will include a selection of tearsheets from these talented artists: McDougall’s Queer Visitors from Marvelous Land of Oz, Denslow’s Father Goose and Billy Bounce, and Neill’s Nip and Tuck, courtesy of historian and publisher Peter Maresca of Sunday Press.

Acclaimed writer and artist Eric Shanower’s first Oz comic, The Enchanted Apples of Oz, was published in 1986, beginning his 25-year (and counting!) association with Baum’s characters. This exhibition will feature highlights from five of Shanower’s Oz graphic novels, as well as a selection of art from his latest series of Eisner Award-winning Oz adaptations for Marvel Comics illustrated by Skottie Young. Additional collaborators include Anna-Maria Cool and the legendary Ramona Fradon.

Presentations and booksignings featuring publisher Peter Maresca and writer/artist Eric Shanower are in the planning stages. Information on these and other Oz-related events will be available soon.

The show runs through April 15, 2012 - If you're in the area go check it out!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Last week we looked at The Land of Oz - so today we come to the "white edition" of Ozma of Oz. Dick Martin's changes to the interior of Ozma were minimal and most of our discussion today will center on the cover design.

If you downloaded the Ozmapolitan last week (and you were very observant) you might have noticed that the covers for The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz on the final page of the Ozmapolitan do not quite match the published books; they seem to be mock-ups. This may indicate that Land and Ozma were the last of the 1964 releases to be designed.

The Land of Oz mock-up is quite different, while the Ozma mock-up seems essentially the same. It looks like Dick Martin simply took a stat of the old 1920s cover label and stuck it on a 1950s edition of Ozma (note the semi-script Reilly & Lee imprint on the spine).

This cover label with the crowd of Oz characters peering around a short brick wall was first used as the original dust-jacket design in 1907. It became the first pictorial cover label for Ozma around 1918 or '19 and remained in use until it was replaced by the so-called "slinky Ozma" cover in 1929.

Cover of OZMA OF OZ circa 1918 to 1929.

As you can see, if you compare images, Dick Martin completely redrew the image; he also added cast shadows to create more light and dark dynamics for the new cover. And of course, the colors are new. The spine is a slightly redrawn version of the original spine illustration.

For the back cover Dick utilized a section of the original pictorial end papers, redrawn to eliminate the background, and rotated slightly.

Original endpaper design from 1907.

This back cover design brings us to an unusual bit of Oz merchandising. The back covers of the "white editions" of Wizard, Ozma, and Glinda were issued as posters by the Ozco Poster Company of Beverly Hills. I have no idea why they selected only these three images or who they were.

1967 Poster from the Ozco Poster Company

The posters measure 20" x 28.5". The posters from Wizard and Ozma are dated 1967, but the Glinda poster is dated 1969. The dates indicate that they were sold separately, yet my three came as a set in a plastic sleeve with a small label saying Ozco Posters, featuring an illustration of the Tin Woodman. These are the only three designs to be made into posters as far as I know - I asked Dick about them in the early 1980s and he said these were the only three, also.

The interior of the "white edition" of Ozma is little changed from the then-current Reilly & Lee edition. A new page one has been added showing the text ad for "The Famous Oz books," for which Dick has used the illustration of the Scarecrow and Billina from the verso of the "List of Chapters." On the backside of this new page is the usual listing of the Oz books. The earliest copies no doubt list all forty titles while later ones cut the list to Baum's fourteen. On the verso of the ownership page Dick has created a new illustration adapting the drawing of Tik-Tok and a Wheeler from the original endpaper design.

Dick did some repair work to the "List of Chapters" illustration (see below). When the color was eliminated from the illustrations in the 1930s, Ozma's long sleeves (originally printed in blue) disappeared creating some nonsensical holes in the illustration. Dick redrew them.

On the verso of this page Dick created a new illustration of the Cowardly Lion, Hungry Tiger, and Billina looking thru an Oz logo to replace the image of the Scarecrow and Billina he moved to the ad of page one. This new image was adapted from the 1907 back cover design.

So that's it for our blog on the "white edition" of Ozma of Oz. We'll close with the handsome bookmark below, prepared to publicize the new "white editions." Next week we'll explore Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

I just finished reading Rachel Cosgrove's SF novel The Deathstones, published by Avalon Books in 1964. As with all of Rachel's SF for Avalon, the book was published under her pseudonym E. L. Arch. Most of my readers know that Rachel Cosgrove was the fifth Royal Historian of Oz, author of The Hidden Valley of Oz and The Wicked Witch of Oz. I've kind of gotten onto a Cosgrove kick lately. I had to dig thru my Cosgroviana a few weeks ago to find a checklist of Rachel's work for a friend who's been bit by the research bug. I wish him lots of luck and much fun!

But as I was saying, I just finished reading The Deathstones. The novel begins on the planet Isis in the Ranian system. Captain Jack Landers is looking for a crew for his small spaceship, the Motley. He and his first-mate hire three peculiar aliens to crew the ship, and yes, Rachel makes a joke about the Motley Crew several times. The three aliens are called X, Y, and Z.

X is the most interesting. He's a protoplasm blob sort of like Odo from Deep Space Nine, except that X can't take other forms. X is a native of the planet Isis. The species is quite intelligent, but can't communicate directly with humans. They can, however, absorb information or instructions if they are in direct physical contact with the person thinking said information. These Ranians (the blobs) have no gender until they make a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Sexing Stones. They enter the temple as grey blobs and leave as either bright red or deep violet blobs who must then mingle with a blob of the opposite color.

Well, Captain Landers is hired by six humans to take them to Osiris (the most distant planet in the system). The bulk of the novel plays out on the crowded little spaceship. The passengers consist of five men and one woman; Captain Landers is none too pleased to have a woman on board. His attitude is very misogynistic, as are the attitudes of the other male passengers. Oddly, the woman is in fact kind of awful. I kept hoping Rachel would redeem her or address the sexist attitudes of the men, but she did not. At one point Amanda says, "I'm such a dope about mechanical things . . . I need a man around to help me." She's simpering, ditzy, and manipulative. Within a few chapters someone has killed her and the book plays out as a murder mystery.

But wait, there's a subplot! Halfway through the journey they hear over the news service that Isis is in chaos - the Sexing Stones have been stolen! Without them the gray blobs will never discover their genders, won't be able to "intermingle" with the opposite color, and there will be no more baby blobs. But in the end the Sexing Stones are found, the murderer gets what he deserves, and all ends as it should with a little help from the Deathstones.

The book was a quick and pleasant read. The grumpy pessimistic captain, the small crew, the half-dozen passengers with secrets (one of whom is a preacher), tooling around a single solar system at sub-light speed definitely reminded me of Joss Whedon's Firefly.

I got my copy of the book many years ago, but never sat down to read it. I wish I had so I could have discussed a few things with Rachel, such as Amanda's character, which seems so odd coming from the strong, well-educated woman Rachel was. I did ask Rachel to sign my copy of The Deathstones, and I was very pleased with what she wrote. I do miss her friendship.